Club Standard Fever

So this Sunday saw the inaugural running of the clubs 10 mile championship race which was run around the flat, fast roads of Great Bromley. Our Harwich rivals were invited to take part as well which created a nice competitive race for the early Sunday start. The race itself saw a whole host of personal bests (PB’s) and a myriad of club standard runs being handed out so lets start with the ladies Vicky Presland (who else?) led the ladies home in a PB of 1:08:42 which also gained her second place on the club all time list!

Following Vicky was Meera Rajoo-Oakley running her first 10 mile race and finishing in 1:14:55 and a silver standard, also gaining silver standards were Claire Groves 6 minute PB in 1:16:59, Jennifer Aylen; who ran a 5 minute PB, in 1:18:03 and Debs Cubberley again running a massive PB of over 8 minutes in 1:25:25. Leoni Harvey also ran a huge PB time knocking 9 and a half minutes off her time finishing in 1:35:50.

Bagging second place in the race behind Harwich Runners Rob Reason (56:26) was Adam Smith who ran 58:43 that also places him 6th in the club all time list. Gold was the colour of the standard for Eric Shaw who completed the 10 miles in 1:22:02, silver standards were run by Ryan Day in his first 10 mile race in 1:02:22, Derek Greenham (1:14:03) and Frank Gardiner (1:18:46). Phil Presland also celebrated a bronze standard (and a massive blood blister) finishing in 1:15:19 whilst both Luke Groves; with a massive 14 minute improvement (1:26:41), and David Wright (1:02:18) posted PB’s. The full list of runners and times can be found here

[A selection of our runners at Bromley]

Sunday also saw other long runs around the country as our runners appetite for distance seems to continue unabated. Paul Blackwell ran marathon number 104 in the Cakeathon which was around Foulmead Park in Kent, joining the marathoners was Lee Clarkson who ran a PB at Betteshanger marathon finishing the 26.2 in 3:49:49 which also gained him sixth place overall. Running just the 13.1 miles were Paul Davison and Sarah Fletcher at the Great South Run in Portsmouth. They ran together posting the same time of 1:18:21 which earned a gold standard for Sarah. Over on the coast on Saturday Davina Swindell took her dog Charlie for a little run completing the Endurance Life coastal half marathon in 2 hours 34 minutes across a flat but varied course that saw them run across and through marshes, forests, beaches and heathland.

[The 100 club!]

Saturday which in comparison seems like the day of rest saw the usual suspects take on a variety of the county’s 5k races. Charlie Keitch recorded Parkrun 1st place number 2 on the coast at Clacton Seafront, Keitch completed the fairly flat course in 19:36 commenting that “he would have liked to go faster”! Dave Goldsmith followed in 2nd place in 20:24 followed by Patrick Reynolds (22:47), Scott Young (23:20), Kevin James (23:25), Brian Telford (23:53), Debs Cubberley (27:46), Alison Clarke (28:09) and Sandra James (35:30). Colchester Castle parkrun saw only one blue shirt this weekend in the guise of Rich Moor who completed the hill twice in 22:01 and Liz Jones (27.23) was our sole representative over at the other coastal run in Harwich.

Over in Chelmsford who had a variety of runs to take part in Caroline Searle completed the 5k race in 30:25 as an easy run on her marathon plan.